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SET OUR HEARTS ON FIRE Chapter 15
A Worldwide Wake-Up Call
We began this book by focusing on the most important revival of your life: yours. The opening chapters were devoted to encouraging you to prepare the way for the Spirit of God to give you a new heredity, so that, washed in the Lamb's blood, you are no longer limited by your past, by the constraints of human flesh or by sin. We noted how the fire of heaven, released upon this earth through the death and resurrection of Jesus, desires to ignite your heart with power to continue the ministry which Jesus began. As your heart catches fire, Jesus passes on his "mantle," the Holy Spirit, to you and anoints you to bring good news to the poor, deliverance to the captives, sight to the blind and freedom to the oppressed.
In the second part of this book we considered how every personal revival is destined to spread to others and become part of something larger than itself. The flame within you reaches out to the flame in others, and soon signs of revival break out in your church, your prayer group, your circle of friends. As the cloud of glory once filled the ancient tabernacle, the atmosphere of heaven enters the assembly, and people are renewed. Enemies are reconciled. Healings occur. Praise and thanksgiving rise up toward the throne, and a spirit of welcome flows out to the broken lives beyond the walls. Jesus is lifted up before their eyes as crucified, and people are drawn to him.
Now, as we bring this book to a close, it is time to look at the larger picture. To see where all these streams of revival, which are presently flowing on every continent, are leading. Every revival which has occurred during the last twenty centuries has been a foretaste of something still to come. In each revival the Spirit is saying, "I am giving you a taste of the spiritual awakening that will one day cover this earth."
During the rapid breakdown in world order which will precede the close of the age, there will be a spiritual awakening such as this earth has never seen. I'm not talking about "gospel satellites" or mass-media wizardry. I'm talking about a grassroots, street level move of the Spirit involving vast numbers of ordinary people whose hearts have been ignited with the fire of God. Initiated, ruled and directed, not by human strategists, but by the Spirit of God, this final worldwide spiritual awakening will leave the human race without excuse.
As the citizens of Wales, in its historic revival of 1904, were briefly torn from their normal lives and forced to face the living God and the crucified and risen Messiah, so the nations of earth will have their moment of revelation. They will stand exposed to a light that has come, not to judge them, but to call them one last time to turn and receive mercy. "For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea" (Heb 2:14). "And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached throughout the whole world, as a testimony to all nations; and then the end will come" (Mt 24:14).
Only the Father knows how the present, slowly spreading revival fits into his plan of salvation history. But we can be sure that this revival is moving us closer to that final worldwide wake-up call.
Keep in mind that you are an integral part of God's redemptive purpose. Behind the revival which has visited your life is Jesus himself, seeking to draw you into the center of God's will and make you ever more effective. The Spirit of God will accomplish through you far more than you would dare to imagine, if you will remember to fit into the program – God's program.
Here are some things to consider:
The revival we are concerned with is God's revival, not man's. Jesus' warnings about false prophets, wolves in sheep's clothing, apply with striking accuracy wherever the Spirit begins to renew the body of Christ.
We need to be aware that for every genuine, God-initiated revival, there will usually be one or two counterfeit revivals nearby. The nearer we come to the end of the age, the more we can expect Jesus' warnings about false prophets and false Christs to apply. "You will know them by their fruits," says the Master (Mt 7:16). We are responsible to distinguish the difference between life that flows from the cross of Jesus and produces the fruit of genuine love, integrity, humility – and the humanly generated (often demonically inspired) "spirituality" that produces only bad fruit when the hoopla ends.
Does this revival bear the marks of Jesus Christ? Is it going about things the way he went about things? Can you picture Jesus pitching for money? Throwing his influence behind a particular political candidate? Leading a demonstration in front of the capitol in support of either the political left or the political right? What kind of followers is this revival producing? Are they humble disciples of Jesus? Or are they groupies?
We need to take seriously Jesus' warnings: "Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep's clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves" (Mt 7:15). "Take heed that no one leads you astray" (Mt 24:4). "Then if any one says to you, 'Lo, here is the Christ!' or 'There he is!' do not believe it" (Mt 24:23).
Not every "revival" is God-initiated. And not every revival that begins with Jesus remains faithful to him. It is up to us to stay true to God's program for revival and commit our lives to his program alone.
At the same time, while we give false prophets a wide berth, our hearts are open to sisters and brothers from other branches of God's revival that may be very different from ours. Their worship may seem strange to us. They may hold different views about last things or how baptism is to be performed or who is an apostle and who isn't. But their love for Jesus is so obvious, the fruit of their lives is so clearly flowing from the cross of Christ, that we welcome them as fellow heirs in the kingdom. We and they are ruled by the same Spirit, living under the shadow of the same cross.
John and some of the other disciples were disturbed to find a man whom they did not know casting out demons in Jesus' name. "What do you think you're doing? Who gave you the right to cast out demons in Jesus' name? You are not one of us!" But when John told Jesus what they did, he said, "Do not forbid him; for no one who does a mighty work in my name will be able soon after to speak evil of me. For he that is not against us is for us" (Mk 9:39-40).
God's program for revival is revealed in Jesus and centered on his cross. We pointed out in the first chapter of this book that God's program for revival is revealed in the way Jesus went about doing things. The Son emptied himself of his glory, became one of us and laid down his life for our redemption. Rising from the dead as the firstborn of the new creation, Jesus poured out the life of the Holy Spirit upon his followers. He set their hearts on fire with the fire of the Spirit of God.
The revival Jesus brings to us is consistent with the pattern of his life among us. We too are called to empty ourselves of our pride and nail our lives to Jesus' cross. We too are raised into a resurrection life by the power of the Holy Spirit so that we can serve the Father in the same way our Lord Jesus did.
Jesus never promoted himself, so we never promote ourselves.
Jesus used no gimmicks. We use no gimmicks.
Jesus never wasted time "raising funds," so we follow his example, trusting the Father to provide for us as we seek to do his will.
Jesus looked only to the Father for every word he spoke, every deed he performed. We look only to him. Not Jesus plus Moses, or Elijah, or the rapture, or this or that spiritual manifestation. Not Jesus plus our insights into the New Testament Church. Just Jesus.
Jesus depended on the Spirit to reveal the Father's will hour by hour. We do the same.
Jesus denied himself, took up his cross daily and pressed on toward Calvary. He commands us to do the same.
Jesus concentrated on fulfilling Isaiah 61:1-2.
The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord. Luke 4:18-19
Revival has come to us to empower us to fulfill this prophecy in Jesus' name by the power of his Spirit. We have been revived to bring Jesus' life to others – many others.
The goal of God's revival is a worldwide wake-up call. The Welsh Revival, like other revivals before and since, was a brief, brilliant flash of glory. For a short while men and women who had never given God a thought were intensely aware of God's reality. They trembled before his holiness. Their hearts melted as Jesus reached out to them in love and touched their lives in ways they would never be able to forget. But soon the blazing spiritual fire that tore through the towns and villages of Wales died away, leaving only a few glowing coals here and there.
The worldwide spiritual awakening that is now gathering momentum is different from past revivals in many respects. This revival is not localized. It is not limited to a particular language or nation. It is developing slowly, with roots in some places (like East Africa) that can be traced back a half century. From far-flung parts of the earth, reports keep reaching us of fresh outpourings of God's Spirit. Consider some highlights:
China In 1950, when all missionaries were expelled, there were a total of four million Christians in China. Today many researchers put the number at one hundred million believers in Jesus, in a country where persecution has often been extreme. Most of this growth has taken place through house churches without the help of religious professionals and without the kind of financing that American churches consider essential.
Russia One example of the spiritual awakening taking place in Russia is the work of Bruce Inglis of Chicago. In the summer months Bruce drives a moving van to support his family. In the winter months he visits Russia, where in six winters he and a handful of Russian co-workers have established one hundred congregations with over fifty Russian pastors.
Africa Researchers put the number of Christians in Africa, as the twentieth century began, at ten million. By 1980 the number had multiplied to two hundred million. As we enter the twenty-first century that number will have doubled again to four hundred million followers of Jesus on a continent where war, famine and economic uncertainty have failed to dampen the fires of revival.
Latin America There is hardly a country in Latin America that hasn't had some taste of revival during the last fifty years. Evangelical believers, whose numbers were placed at forty thousand to fifty thousand in 1900, have multiplied to well over one hundred million today.
Korea Daily, at 5:00 A.M., tens of thousands of believers gather in their churches for prayer. One congregation, whose membership is approaching the million mark, reports twelve thousand new believes a month. In many Korean churches prayer and fasting are simply a normal part of the Christian life.
The Worldwide Messianic Movement Messianic congregations and synagogues, made up of Jewish men and women who confess Yeshua as their Messiah, are multiplying, not only in North America, but in France, England, Australia, Israel, Turkey and Latin America. Are we looking at the beginning of the fulfillment of Paul's prophecy in Romans 11:24: "For if you have been cut from what is by nature a wild olive tree, and grafted, contrary to nature, into a cultivated olive tree, how much more will these natural branches be grafted back into their own olive tree"?
At the very least, this spreading global spiritual fire is a foretaste of what will one day be God's final worldwide wake-up call. The purpose of this revival, like every spiritual awakening before it, is to prepare the earth for its coming King: "Behold, I am coming soon, bringing my recompense, to repay every one for what he has done.... Blessed are those who wash their robes, that they may have the right to the tree of life" (Rv 22:12,14).
You have been included in this plan. The fire of heaven descends into your heart, not for your sake alone, but for the sake of those whom the Spirit of the Lord intends to ignite through you. He sets fire to your heart so that you can be a torch in his hand.
If you are willing to be used by the Spirit on his terms and as he chooses, your life will become part of redemptive history. No one on earth may ever write a book about your exploits, but your life of obedience will make a difference – an eternal difference – in the lives God causes you to touch.
On the other hand, if you choose not to obey the call to obedience which the Lord Jesus has placed upon you through this revival, someone else will be raised up to accomplish the work that was meant to be yours. The work will be done, with you or without you. The word will go forth, through you or through someone else.
The opportunity is yours. If you accept this calling, your life will be linked to the life of a mighty army that is being raised to break through the gates of death and set the captives free before the King returns. All the power of heaven and earth will be placed at your disposal. And the Spirit of the King himself will accompany you every step of the way: "Lo, I am with you always, to the close of the age" (Mt 28:20).
From "Set Our Hearts On Fire" published by Servant Publications 1998
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